Mini Mag - Wales and the World issue 2023

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Newport mental health charity

Growing Space is using horticulture as a way to keep volunteers with mental health conditions feeling positive by working outside during the winter months.

The year-round problem solving element of gardening is helpful for those with seasonal affective disorder (SAD), which affects around 2 million people in the UK according to the NHS. Making the most of the natural light is essential self-care for people with SAD.

With days getting shorter, gardening is an effective way of keeping people active outdoors.

Brian Hanlon, horticulture enthusiast and charity supervisor for Growing Space, said: “We like the idea that [gardening] changes with the seasons, so it never stays still.”

Herbal remedies

Growing Space, formed in 1992, is based in Tredegar House, Newport, and helps manage and maintain areas of the site’s historic gardens. He said: “The scale of the gardening is quite large so we naturally bring groups of people together.”

The charity’s gardening work happens all year round, closing only for the Christmas and New

Masterchef finalist fears for Newport bistro

Francesca Keirle, owner of a Geshmak in the heart of Newport, has worries for the future of the business following uncertainty caused by the cost-of-living crisis.

Staffing issues and the rising cost of energy bills has caused Keirle to worry about the longevity of her business.

“As I start turning a profit, that’s going to be

Year period, so there is always work that needs to be done.

Horticulture also takes place within the garden’s polytunnels, so activities can be planned around the increasingly rainier weather.

Hanlon said: “There are always things that need to be tended to, plants that need to be cared for, vegetables that need to be grown, so there’s constant

Business

sucked into the void of energy,” Keirle said. Rising electricity bills have led to the closure of the independent Secret Garden cafe, situated on the same street as Geshmak. v

problem solving there.”

“It’s all about forward thinking, and with mental health that’s crucial— most people can get stuck in the present or dwelling on the past.

Growing Space continues its gardening work through the winter. v

Yma O Hyd: Viral video shows love for language

A Welsh language protest song used as the official anthem for Wales’ World Cup campaign has highlighted the importance of the language to Welsh identity.

The connection was illustrated during an interview in Cardiff, when Dafydd Iwan, who wrote Yma O Hyd, was interrupted

by a fan of the song.

“Everyone says: ‘You’re Somali, how do you like that?’” Ali Goolyad, 31, states in the video. “I say: connect with

“It’s all about forward thinking, and with mental health that’s crucial”

Her Game Too

Vyas

When Roopa Vyas started writing about her love of football as a passion project during her teens, she never knew she would end up a notable personality within the Wales and Liverpool FC fanbases.

Today, Caerphillyborn Roopa, 25, is a director and Liverpool FC ambassador for #HerGameToo, an organisation which aims to foster an ethos in football where women are equally welcomed and respected.

Growing up in a male-dominated football world, Roopa experienced exclusion all too familiar for many female fans.

“I watched football with my brother and his friends. They wouldn’t talk to me in the same way,” Roopa admits. “We wouldn’t talk tactics or transfers in the same ways as they would with each other.”

Differential treatment accompanied the Liverpool FC superfan when she followed her team around the country and moved to the city for university.

“I’d be travelling alone, or I’d be the only woman on the coach,” Roopa says. “Those experiences really shaped how I am now because I’ve had comments or I’ve just experienced men being men on long journeys, like three, four hours across England.”

During this time, Roopa recalls losing touch with the social aspect of the sport, something she had previously loved. She remembers cutting this out of her match day routines, and even wanting to leave games half way through.

Roopa says these experiences have made her more open,making her realise a lot of the “banter” and unwanted comments she received were unacceptable.

She has been emboldened to use her position to help other fans going through the same thing, creating a human point of contact for reporting abuse through #HerGameToo.

“Massive football clubs have systems in place, but people don’t feel that human connection, because you’re filling in a report online,” Roopa says.

“I’m reaching out to people, I’m on that journey with them.”

Growing up in the valleys, Roopa harboured a deep connection to her Welsh identity. Throughout her career, Roopa has been invited to speak at many big profile Welsh sport moments, such as the Euro 2020 squad announcement.

But similar to the differences she experienced within football, the Cymru FC personality felt like her presence was a ‘ticked box’ for institutions.

“There’s certain opportunities I’ve had, which I know that it’s because I’m an Indian-WelshLiverpool-Wales fan.

“I’m so different from a lot of other people. But at the same time, there’s loads of us. I

feel like I am a voice for them.”

Following Wales’ first World Cup in 64 years, Roopa reflects proudly on the inclusive space she and others are carving out within football fanbases.

She recalls occasions of feeling disconnected: “No one really stood up for me at the time. I couldn’t really tell anyone [about her experiences],” she says. “But now it’s a case of: I know I can get support.” v

Football fanatic Roopa

on her journey following the sport in a male-dominated fanbase

“My brother and his friends wouldn’t talk to me in the same way”

Green, green grass of home

The urgency of the climate crisis is engaging people with politics in Wales

Following the presentation of the Welsh Budget Outlook by the Wales Fiscal Analysis team at Cardiff Bay’s Pierhead Building on a bitter early December morning, the outlook was bleak but not unexpected.

Whereas as recently as 2021 a local authority could borrow at an interest rate of one percent from the Public Works Loan Board, that interest rate is now running considerably higher. Cian Siôn of the WFA concluded: “That is going to make it

more challenging to fund capital expenditure projects you’re going to have to deliver in order to meet net zero goals in the next decades.”

Despite Welsh government commitments to battling climate change, according to the UK Climate Change Risk Assessment, 26 analysed risks from climate change in Wales, including more frequent flooding and coastal erosion, have increased in terms of urgency since previous reports.

It’s obvious that governments and organisations need to be held to account continuously on their commitment to climate action. But Local Government and Senedd elections in Wales infamously produce consistent low turnouts, particularly among younger demographics.

Approximately only 1 in 5 (12,338) newly enfranchised 16-17 year olds registered to vote ahead of the May 2022 local elections. These figures beg the question as to how much the Welsh Government is being held to account for what must be done regarding the climate crisis by the generations it will most affect.

The climate crisis is something the majority of the Welsh population is engaged with; 82% of people say they are fairly or very concerned about the effects of climate change.

Following Wales Climate Week 2022 last November, an annual group of events building on the Conference of the Parties (COP) global climate change summit, groups like Size of Wales are working to directly engage people with these issues, and highlight how they can make change and impact decision making.

Barbara Davis-Quy, deputy director of the climate change charity, highlighted the desire of the Welsh population to commit to climate responsibility: “I think we’re quite a globally responsible and really proud nation [...] based on principles of solidarity.

“[Young people] want to protect the Amazon, they want to protect the people that live in the Amazon, they want to protect the animals that live there and thrive.”

The charity educates young people on climate change, and illustrates what people can do to help at different levels. “We engage with young people because we see them as the future generation.” Davies-Quy

stated. The charity’s education work has covered over 200 primary and secondary schools across the country, and has an emphasis on how: “everyone has a role, no matter how small they are. Everyone can bring about change.”

The charity also runs a “mock COP”, where young people represent nations and engage in climate negotiations similar to the official COP event. DaviesQuy explained how these events help young people understand how international decision making works, and engage them within this world by sharing knowledge. Young people who have been involved in these mock COP events have gone on to be part of the Youth Climate Ambassadors, a group of 12 young people from across Wales passionate about fighting for climate justice.

Through engaging young people into climate change issues, Size of Wales has been able to influence policy makers. Young people were encouraged to write a letter to the First Minister Mark Drakeford to call for Wales to become a deforestation free nation.

A reason for political disengagement could be the lack of curriculumbased political education in

Disengaged nation?

mainstream schools across Wales. A damning Estyn response in the Curriculum for Wales 2022 analysis stated that the current version of the curriculum: “provides very little explicit reference to or guidance for [...] political awareness and understanding to help them become ‘informed citizens’.” In 2018, the Electoral Reform Society Cymru asked 200 young people in 13 schools throughout Wales what they wanted to learn as part of a political education curriculum. The overwhelming response in every school was that they all wanted to learn about politics, to be taught basic life skills and they wanted to see more of their politicians.

The Youth Climate Ambassadors who participated in Size of Wales’ mock COPs chair the Cross-Party Group on Climate, Nature and Wellbeing at the Senedd, ensuring the Welsh Government can keep on track to net zero targets in future. The group gives young people a platform so they can directly influence decision makers. DaviesQuy emphasised: “Spaces like the citizens assemblies are really good models of taking decision making down to community level.” v